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Edited on Thu Sep-15-05 07:37 PM by David Zephyr
A socialist friend of mine sent this to me to let me see just the kind of lies and crap with thinly veneered racism that is being circulated on the internet to defend George Bush's catastrophic neglect of New Orleans and the Gulf during and after Katrina.
Perhaps some of you have also had this sent to you to piss you off.
I'd like to ask any of you at the DU who can provide direct links to as many as possible news stories that refute all of the below.
Please pick any item. I will be working on this tonight at my home and hope to have a solid comeback to this shit. Any help from any of you would be greatly appreciated. Any link, any newstory.
For example, the military has denied that any one reported to them that their helicopters were shot at, although this story still continues. I cannot find a link.
Anybody want to help with any of these? My sister also received this from a neighbor that she say drinks the Bush cool-aid. So this must be being distributed around a lot.
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Subject: It's George Bush's Fault--Read It All
A Shell Oil official says his company had all it's offshore and refinery personnel evacuated prior to Katrina getting to them. They, like most of the rest of America, knew it was coming 3 or 4 days before it hit. But it's George Bush's fault.
The mayor of New Orleans ordered an emergency evacuation of the city prior to the storm hitting, then, even with hundreds (maybe thousands) of school buses available, provided no means to get people out who couldn't get out themselves. By the time he thought of it (if he ever did) the buses were underwater and useless. No action was taken to move city vehicles and equipment to higher ground. But it's George Bush's fault.
As looters plundered the city, New Orleans already infamous police dept. either quit their jobs, abdicated their responsibilities, or in some reported cases, joined the looters. But it's George Bush's fault.
The mayor of New Orleans, who's supposed to be in charge of those police, was apparently too busy sitting on his hands. Not until he'd spent several days "below the horizon" did he reappear, with a serious case of righteous indignation, a self-described feeling of frustration, and a rather profane vocabulary, only to tell the world it's George Bush's fault.
Local police, according to published news stories, were busy rescuing the citizens', but all I saw were Coast Guard helicopters doing the rescue...Coast Guard, that's federal, directed by the Commander-in-Chief, But it's George Bush's fault.
The City of New Orleans, mostly below sea level and bordered on all sides by water, owns three boats. At the time of the storm, two of those were out of service. It's George Bush's fault.
National Guard troops are traditionally activated for disaster response by the governor of the affected state. To eliminate the appearance of federal military intervention in state and local issues, the federal government traditionally waits until the guard has been requested before sending them. But no such request was made until days after the catastrophe. Even offers from other states got tentative response. For the same reason, the Guard is only authorized to deploy for disaster relief, and specifically is prohibited from performing law enforcement duties, unless requested to do so by the governor of the affected state, a process that takes only a signature on an authorization letter, five minutes, tops. The Louisiana governor did not do this until the situation was clearly, and severely, out of hand. But it's George Bush's fault.
About 10 years ago, a FEMA study identified New Orleans as a potential candidate for total devastation if a hurricane should make a direct hit. Three times or more, money was appropriated to increase New Orleans' defenses against this eventuality. Three times, the levees, designed to withstand only a Cat 3 storm, were not reinforced. It just wasn't important enough to the city or state to make it happen. But it's George Bush's fault.
A federal emergency was declared by the president prior to the hurricane coming ashore, a rare if not unprecedented move, in order to activate FEMA and get materiel and supplies in position to be quickly put in use once they could. But it's George Bush's fault.
FEMA was ready to respond the day before Katrina hit, and on the ground in a forward position within a day, as soon as a forward position was tenable. Once on the ground, they started operations within 4 hours. But it's George Bush's fault.
The news media showed terrible photos of looting, violence and lawbreaking, and told stories of people taking large-screen tvs, stereos and so forth; and without exception, every one of those stories excused the behavior as 'just surviving'. I never thought about it, but I'd probably survive better myself with a couple of those 42" plasma hd jobs and six or eight pairs of Nike's most expensive shoes. And of course, I wouldn't be personally responsible, because everyone knows it's George Bush's fault.
Choppers trying to take people off rooftops have been shot at. Evacuation of the SuperDome was temporarily halted because of snipers. People who could have left the city before the storm still refuse to do so, and are consuming recovery resources. Evacuees in the SuperDome were being robbed by other evacuees, women were being raped, gunfire was rampant, outbreaks of gang violence were reported within the evacuee crowd, and of course it's George Bush's fault.
As I write this, news is coming that perhaps as many as 8 contractors have been shot, with perhaps 5 or 6 killed, by the New Orleans police (where'd they come from?). But it's George Bush's fault.
And the one that puzzles me most. Jesse Jackson, Louis Farakhan, Al Sharpton, the new guy in charge of the NAACP, in other words, the black leaders, the ones blacks look up to, respect (God only knows why), and would perhaps heed in an emergency such as this, were totally silent. THEIR CHAMPIONS DID NOTHING. No pleas for order, no calls for calm, no leadership, no actionable effort to provide relief themselves or assist those who were in harms way - only silence. Silence that is, until they could go on record as saying it's George Bush's fault.
Seems to me only one person is doing anything positive here. So let me pose a question, if, God forbid, you got caught up in a crisis such as this, would you rather have the mayor of New Orleans, the governor of Louisiana, Jesse Jackson or George Bush come to your aid? Yeah, you got it, the only good things that have happened to New Orleans and its population since Katrina struck is—repeat after me—George Bush's fault.
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